CONTEMPORARY LITERARY CRITICISM, Vol 189 CARDINAL

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Pretense and Possibility: The Tomorrows of
Charles, Lula and Marie Cardinal
Claire Marrone
Sacred Heart University, [email protected]
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Marrone, Claire. "Pretense and Possibility: The Tomorrows of Charles, Lula and Marie Cardinal." Contemporary Literary Criticism.
Eds. Tom Burns and Jeffrey W. Hunter. Thompson/Gale: Farmington Hills, MI, 2004. Vol. 189. 73-79.
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CARDINAL
CONTEMPORARY LITERARY CRITICISM, Vol 189
Djebar, Assia. L'Amour, la fantasia. Paris: J. C Lattes,
1985.
Marie Cardinal has enjoyed international notoriety for
over two decades, particularly since the publication of
her most celebrated text, Les Mots pour le dire (1975).
Autobiography has always been at the center of
Cardinal's production, and her search for self-knowledge
has taken various forms. Her corpus, which includes
over fifteen works of fiction, autobiography, and criticism, has been especially relevant for contemporary
feminist critics, for her writing highlights such issues
as: the fusion and non-fictional elements; historical,
mythical and political constructions of female identity;
the mother-daughter relationship; and exilic writing.
Donadey, Anne Roch. "R6petition, maternity et transgression dans trois oeuvres de Marie Cardinal." French
Review 65.4 (1992): 567-77.
Fanon, Frantz. Peau noire, masques blancs. Paris: Seuil,
1952.
-. Pour la revolution africaine. Paris: Maspero,
1964.
Feit, Harvey A. "The Construction of Algonquian Hunting Territories: Private Property as Moral Lesson, Policy
Advocacy, and Ethnographic Error." Colonial Situations: Essays on the Contextualization of Ethnographic
Knowledge. Ed. George W. Stocking Jr. Madison:
Wisconsin UP, 1991. 109-34.
Many of Cardinal's text trace her nomadic existence.
Bom in Algeria 1929 to a French colonial family, she
currently resides a portion of the year in Malaucene, in
the South of France, and part of the year in Montreal.
Some twelve years ago, Cardinal became a Canadian
citizen. She feels at home amidst the Quebeckers who,
because of their history of colonization, remind her of
the pieds-noirs.1 Her texts often thematize geographical
wandering as analogous to the psychological journey of
self-discovery.
Henry, Jean-Robert. "Resonances maghrSbines." Le
Maghreb dans I'imaginaire francais: la colonic, le desert, I'exil. St Etienne: Edisud, 1985. 5-14.
Le C16zio, Marguerite. "Mother and Motherland: The
Daughter's Quest for Origins," Stanford French Review
Winter (1981): 381-89.
In Marie Cardinal's latest text, Les Jeudis de Charles
et de Lula (1993)\ words and writing provide once
again space for self-exploration. As in so many of
Cardinal's previous texts, personal experience constitutes the impetus for the story. The relationship between
the two lifelong lovers, Charles and Lula, resembles
Marie Cardinal's relationship with her own husband—a
relationship which endures change and separation, but
also allows personal and sexual freedom to both partners.' Like Cardinal, Lula is over sixty years old, lives
in Provence and is native of Algeria. Like Jean-Pierre
Ronfard, Cardinal's husband, Charles is from the north
of France, a researcher, and an avid theater lover. There
are also differences between the real and the imaginary
couple, however. In an interview with me, Cardinal
explains that she is "bouffe*e par (sa) famille", by the
comings and goings of children, grandchildren and inlaws . . . by the commotion of meals, demands, responsibilities. . . .* Lula, on the other hand, has devoted her
life mainly to her profession, journalism. When
questioned about the autobiographical inspiration for
the character Lula, Cardinal explains: "Peut-Stre que
j'aurais aime" fitre Lula. Peut-etre que j'aurais aime"
passer ma vie a £crire" (author's interview). The
significance of these remarks is not whether or not there
is any "truth" to the characters of Charles and Lula, but
rather how the play of autobiography and fiction in
Jeudis creates a space for the writer to imaginatively
explore potential selves. I shall argue in this paper that
just as Cardinal communicates with her readers through
posturing and pretense in the various autobiographical
personae she creates, Charles and Lula analogously
communicate in Jeudis through a series of masks,
dramatizations and pretexts. In the above-cited inter-
Lionnet, Franchise. Autobiographical Voices: Race,
Gender, Self-Portraiture. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1989.
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. Political Writings. Trans. Bill
Readings and Kevin Paul Geiman. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 1993.
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism.
Knopf, 1993.
New York:
Siblot, Paul. "Retours a TAlgene heureuse' ou les mille
et un d&ours de la nostalgic" Le Maghreb dans
Vimaginaire francais: la colonie, le disert, I'exil St
Etienne: Edisud, 1985. 151-64.
Smith, Sidonie. Subjectivity, Identity, and the Body:
Women Autobiographical Practices in the Twentieth
Century. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1993.
Woodhull, Winifred. Transfigurations of the Maghreb:
Feminism, Decolonization,
and Literatures, Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 1993.
Claire Marrone (essay date fall 1997)
SOURCE: Marrone, Claire. "Pretense and Possibility:
The Tomorrows of Charles, Lula, and Marie Cardinal."
Sites I, no. 2 (fall 1997): 527-40.
[In the following essay, Marrone discusses the relationship between the dual protagonists in Les Jeudis de
Charles et de Lula and notes their gender-based differences in thought, language, and desires.]
73
CARDINAL
CONTEMPORARY UTERARY
CRITICISM, Vol 189
view, Cardinal continues: "Les Grecs etaient de tres
bons psychologues. lis savaient que dans un fitre humain, il y avait 36 facettes, 36 possibilit6s." Cardinal
indeed suggests such a myriad of possible identities in
her numerous self portraits. Although we can never be
certain that the real Cardinal actually wishes to communicate through her characters, we can infer a connection between the author and those characters who
resemble her through Cardinal's constant preoccupation
with the self and autobiographical expression in her
writings. States Cardinal: "J'ai besoin d'etre la femme
de chacun de mes livres" (Autrement dit 85). I will first
illustrate Cardinal's use of personae. Then, I shall
exemplify Cardinal's posturing vis-a-vis her public—
readers who, in response to the author, assume many
roles. Next, I will demonstrate how this paradigm of
pretense parallels Charles and Lula's similar use of
masks. Finally, I shall relate the performative art of
writing to storytelling in general, and consider the
creative process of narrative, and the fabulation it
entails, in terms of gender.
autobiographical texts, whether they be written in the
first person or the third person, "the narrator—the
author's double—searches for her identity in connection
to others" ("'She Is Me More than / ' " 60). She explains
that Cardinal explores her relationship with her mother
in Les Mots pour le dire, with her husband in Vne Vie
pour deux, with her father in Le Passi empie'te' and
with her daughter in Les Grands Desordres ('"She Is
Me More than /"' 60). We notice that Cardinal continues
the search for self-definition through association with
others in her recent texts. In Comme si de rien n'Stait,
she explores her relationship to a community of women
in a polyvocal narrative, and in Jeudis she again
explores the bond with her husband.
Might we extend this paradigm even further and
postulate that relation to others exists in the imagination
as well, and that it is in fact an inspiration for writing?
I shall argue that Cardinal in essence dialogues with
numerous potential selves through the writing process.
For example, certain characters reappear in several texts,
and with each refabricated portrait, the author understands better her own identity. Carolyn Durham has
written extensively on the techniques of repetition and
rewriting in Cardinal's corpus, and documents the reappearance of several characters in various guises in
Cardinal's works: the young virgin who experiences
sexual awakening despite the conventional mores of her
family (Autrement dit, Les Mots pour le dire, Vne Vie
pour deux, etc.); the suicidal mad woman (Ecoutez la
mer, Les Mots pour le dire, Vne Vie pour deux, etc.);
the middle-aged artist, spiritually reborn through her
newfound identity (La Souriciere, ficoutez la mer, etc.)
(Durham 59-60). Durham also points out the frequency
of "autocitation," or the repetition of significant passages, sometimes verbatim, from one work to the next.
For example, the scene in which a young mother tells
her teenage daughter of attempts to abort her is found
in La CU sur la parte, and later, in a different context
and through another narrator, in Les Mots pour le dire,
and once again in Au Pays de mes racines (Durham
59). Cardinal's corpus, then, essentially becomes a "pretext" for each new literary project upon which she
embarks. Such repetition and rewriting attests to an intertextual dialogue between Cardinal and the personages she creates-^haracters who come back to her and
who are refashioned in the author's imagination. The
link between all of Cardinal's writings is the obsessive
return to characters who become interlocutors with the
writer, and who help her consider the complexities of
the self. Cardinal emphasizes this association from one
text to the next:
Cardinal postulates a multitude of conceivable selves,
autobiographical to a grater or lesser degree, in her
numerous works—the woman haunted by la chose in
Les Mots pour le dire, the suicidal Camille in La Souriciere, Simone threatened by a rival in Vne Vie pour
deux, Simone the teacher and devoted mother in Comme
si de rien n'itait (we recall that Cardinal's given name
is Simone), Elsa, who struggles with her daughter's
drug addiction in Les Grands Dtsordres—all of which
can be read as variations on a central theme, that of the
author's life. Toward the end of Cardinal's renowned
Les Mots pour le dire, the narrator decides that she will
one day write her own life story. Yet the product will be
a roman: "je raconterais . . . la guerison d'une femme
qui me ressemblerait" (269, emphasis mine). Such narrative play with Active and autobiographical elements,
quite common in contemporary writing by women,
opens the space for reconsideration of the self with
each new portrait. Colette T. Hall affirms:. "Cardinal
who uses own life experiences as a starting point for
her creation, establishes her own identity when she
projects on her female protagonists her possible selves"
(She Is Me More than / " ' 63). Lucille Cairns concurs
that Cardinal "write(s) principally of her own experience and would seem to be incarnating herself, or
certain facets of herself, under diverse guises in each
new protagonist" (281).
Cardinal also seeks self-understanding through relationships with others. In her various autobiographical
portraits, protagonists enact Cardinal's significant connections with her parents, her husband, her children.
Several critics such as Nancy Chodorow have emphasized the fact that women define themselves and experience themselves relationally, whereas men feel more
autonomous. Hall concurs that in many of Cardinal's
J'ai trouv6 que c'etait une chaine, l'ecriture. . . . C'est
toujours le mcme livre qu'on approfondit, qu'on elargit. qu'on agrandit, qu'on voudrait ameliorer, qu'on
voudrait perfectionner, etc. Je pense qu'apres, quand on
est mort, 1'ensemble des livres, ca fait un livre.
(author's interview)
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CONTEMPORARY UTERARY
CARDINAL
CRITICISM, Vol 189
Elle n'a pas envie de parler. Elle est plongee dans une
torpeur ou elle se plait. Elle flotte dans le magma rassurant des devinettes et des clefs de son passe. . . .
Elle est dans ce berceau, dans cet ceuf, elle n'a pas le
desir d'en sortir.
(8)
Anne Donaday adds that Cardinal develops her sense of
selfhood through relationships with her female characters from one text to the next:
Toutes ces femmes dont elle se reclame de livre en
livre, sa mere, sa soeur morte, sa fille, Mary, les
heroines tragiques medite'rrandennes (M6dee, Clytemnestre, Electre, Iphigenie), 'sont des miroirs dans
lesquels je me reflete' (Cardinal, Le Passt empiiti,
258), miroirs a double face representant l'angoisse de
la mort tout en servant de moyens de la renaissance.
(573)
I posit that the internal dialogue between Cardinal and
her own characters is also extended outward, as the
author reinvents herself and re-presents herself for her
public with each new text. Writing becomes a narrative
performance for the public, and reading and criticism—by writers, by scholars, by women who have
been so moved by Cardinal's works—allow us to enter
into "conversation" with the author. Through the
responses and reactions of her public, Cardinal is able
to grow and develop as a writer. Central to Cardinal's
perception of self is indeed her identity as an author.
She states: "C'est sflr que ce qui me fait le plus exister,
bien plus que les enfants, les petits-enfants et le reste,
c'est l'ecriture. Si on ra'enleve l'ecriture, je ne suis plus
rien" (personal interview). This is echoed in the
autobiographical Les Mots pour le dire, where the main
character's self-understanding is closely linked to her
success as a writer; writing becomes, in fact, integral to
the cure for. her mental problems. Furthermore, Cardinal
has stated on several occasions that she writes for
women, for those, in particular, who: "ne savent pas
traduire en mots ce que leur corps sait: la lenteur des
gestations, la viscosite" feconde . . . le poids du temps
. . . L'archai'sme de nos vies de femmes . . ."
(Autrement dit 81). Sophie Godin confirms: "Cardinal
est de ces 6crivains qui parlent de nous, de notre vie, de
nos malaises, avec des mots quotidiens. Ses romans
sont ceux dans lesquels Ton se reconnait." Pierre Maury
ponders the pressure Cardinal must undoubtedly experience, in particular after the success of Les Mots pour le
dire: "Comment, en effet, penser que Ton va continuer
de r6pondre a l'attente de femmes dont la vie a parfois
change* apres la lecture (des Mots pour le dire), sinon
en continuant a suivre son prope chemin?" We, the
readers, in particular women readers who constitute the
majority of Cardinal's reading public5, respond, demand,
expect, await new texts. We, too, wear various hats as
we approach each narrative—we are women, sisters,
mothers, daughters, critics, writers, friends. We may
respond to her texts differently depending on the role
we assume at the moment. In the case of Jeudis, the
critic in us wonders if the dialogue between Charles
and Lula is contrived. We prefer Cardinal's poetic
meditations. Consider, for example, the following
description of Lula:
f
We prefer her insertion of past events which slowly illuminate Charles and Lula's relationship. A letter from
Charles dated March 26, 1955: "Lula, ma douce-dure
. . . je vais me marier avec Franchise, une amie
d'enface . . ." (140-41), followed by "La veille, Lula
avait appris qu'elle €tait enciente . . . Elle n'aurait pas
de mari, et alors? Et puis, si elle avait un fils elle
1'appellerait Charles et si elle avait une fille elle
l'appellerait Charlotte" (143-46). The feminist in us
cheers Lula's independence, her ability to juggle career
and family life, and her questioning of traditional roles.
Lula indeed has a daughter, Charlotte, yet Charlotte
confides in her father when she becomes pregnant, and
it is he, rather than the mother, who arranges for an
abortion—a secret never revealed to Lula. Finally, the
mothers and daughters in us marvel at Cardinal's humility ("Je ne me prends pas du tout pour un grand 6crivain," personal interview), and her capacity to convey
the affective aspect of women's lives in Jeudis and in
her other texts:
Si j'ai un talent, ce n'est pas un talent d'ecrivain. Je
crois que j'ai le talent de savoir ce que j'ai en commun
avec les autres. Et au fond . . . pourquoi (mes) livres
ont de tels succes? Parce que c'est la vie de toutes les
femmes. Moi, je suis une femme parmi d'autres.
(author's interview)
Our interpretations and criticisms become part of an
ongoing conversation between author and public.
Cardinal's relationship with her women readers can
also be extended to her rapport with the public at large
when issues such as deadlines for new manuscripts,
revenue from sales, and challenges by the Parisian writers' elite to participate in new trends (many of which
Cardinal refuses) are considered. The "autobiographical
pact" (Lejeune) becomes one not so much of veracity
and intention, but of a continuation of writing and
production by the author, and an amplification of desire
and expectation by the reading public.
A brief analysis of the two main characters will help
elucidate the parallel between the performative nature
of Cardinal's writing and the masquerade in which
Charles and Lula engage in Jeudis. The two main
characters are in many ways polar opposites. Lula is attached to nature, to individuals and to humanity. She
seeks to understand the patterns and tendencies of her
character. Charles is fashionable and flirtatious. He flees
commitment, strong emotional bonds and selfinterrogation. Each finds the personality of the other
incomprehensible, and at times frustrating, yet they
75
CARDINAL
CONTEMPORARY UTERARY
engage in a game of seduction and restraint which creates mutual desire. Uncertainty and fear of loss of the
beloved partner furthermore heighten Charles and Lula's attraction to one another.
cowardice (the topic of their first debate) is in love
relationships, his expose" becomes a dramatization
through which he solicits Lula's pardon. We read: "Arm
de prouver sa sincerite, Charles se jette avec emphase
dans la confession" (30). After recounting how he
abandoned a lover and her sick child who had become
attached to him, Charles breathes a sigh of relief: "En
fait . . . il est soulage\ Lula vient de lui donner
l'absolution: il croyait avoir parle" de sa plus grande
l<ichet6 et elle dit qu'ils n'ont pas commence a parler de
la lachet6 . . . Ouf!" (34). I would argue that their lack
of direct communication allows Charles and Lula not
only to prolong their game of seduction, but that such
pretense also grants them greater creativity in revealing
who they are or who they would like to be.
Despite differences and geographical distance, Charles
and Lula's desire to relate, communicate and love in
their own way inspires them. Hence when Charles finds
himself in Avignon near Lula's home for three months,
he proposes a strict agenda of meetings once per week
so that he and Lula can debate, philosophize about various subjects, and take stock of their lives. He suggests:
"Pendant que je serai a Avignon, nous rencontrer
rdgulierement, a date fixe, a heure fixe, pour faire le
point. . . Se rencontrer avec un but precis: ddbattre sur
un sujet choisi d'avance" (21). Their Thursday meetings to follow will revolve around such topics as le
nouveau, les nomades, Iibert6-6galit6-fraternite\ We hear
echoes of the romans d'idees of the eighteenth century,
where fragments of philosophical conversation, otherwise common to the essay, were integrated into a
novelistic structure (Enthoven and Scarpetta 153).* Lula
marvels at Charles' proposal which responds to her innermost yearnings: "parler, faire le point, y voir clair,
mettre de l'ordre dans ses pensees . . ." (22). Regular
Thursday meetings are in fact a contrived arrangement
which allows the couple to fulfill their mutual desire to
be together. At the same time, it allows them to repress
any overt and conventional commitment, much in keeping with the unconventional relationship they have lived
for over forty years. Why does the couple need such a
structure in order to be together and relate on a profound
level? What impact does such an artificial arrangement
have on their exchanges? Will they communicate differently due to personality and gender over the course of
their meetings?
CRITICISM, Vol 189
The role-playing thematic also accentuates the complex
nature of the self in philosophical terms. At one of their
sessions, for example, Charles invents a fable. Lula
muses: "Le ton de la voix de Charles a chang6. H joue
un role. C'est peut-etre lorsque, d61iter6ment, il joue un
role qu'elle le trouve le vrai et qu'elle lc prefere" (88).
Do Charles and Lula flee their "true selves" as they
reach beyond direct, straightforward exchange? In fact,
the opposite becomes clear—such role-playing, such
extension of the boundaries of the self which enables
the couple to communicate in an imaginative and
hypothetical fashion, leads to greater selfunderstanding.7 Similarly, the role-playing with which
Cardinal experiments in her personal narratives, and the
various autobiographical personae she creates, provide
the structure through which she can dialogue internally
in an ongoing quest for self-definition. She accentuates
or suppresses (consciously or not) aspects of her own
character, and the fiction of fantasy colors her personal
portraits. In turn, the various roles we the readers assume allow us to become players in the drama of literary production. Finally, Cardinal's creative performances for her readers, like Charles and Lula's game of
pretense and possibility in their exchanges, are echoed
in Jeudis in the author's treatment of storytelling in
general. Just as personal history can be told from various subject positions, and modified with each new narrator and every new text, so can the "story" of collective "History" vary according to she/he who tells the
tale. Cardinal states:
Several scenes in Jeudis exemplify Charles and Lula's
communication with one another through various masks,
dramatizations and pretexts. When Charles surprises
Lula at her country home, for example, she is overjoyed,
but she will only reveal limited pleasure: "Elle sait qui
est la, c'est Charles . . . Deja, son dispositif de defense
se met en place et pourtant la joie fretille en elle . . .
Lula ne laissera pas paraitre l'essentiel de son plaisir"
(9). When Lula cannot reach Charles by telephone to
propose a topic for their first session, she reflects: 'Tant
pis . . . Apres tout, ces conversations hebdomad aires
ne sont qu'un pr&exte. C'est toujours comme 5a: quand
ils ne se sont pas vus depuis longtemps ils d6guisent
Fexcitation de se retrouver en conduite prudente" (28).
Charles, too, is careful to restrain his true emotions: "II
sait qu'il doit mesurer ses reactions, ne pas prendre les
choses trop a la rigolade, ou trop au seneux" (13). In
some cases, the performative nature of language serves
as a tool of manipulation and power—discourse is
organized in order to receive a desired response. For
example, when Charles discloses that his greatest
Mon idde c'est toujours de mettre l'Histoire avec un
grand H en cause, parce que je trouve que l'Histoire
nous est mal enseignee et nous est mal racontee. C'est
vrai qu'en grande partie c'est pace qu'il n'y a pas de
femmes dans l'Histoire ou tres peu, et que je trouve ca
pas juste parce que l'Histoire ne pourrait pas exister si
les femmes n'existaient pas.
(author's interview)
During Charles and Lula's debate on L'Histoire (the
double entendre resonates effectively in French), for
example, another of their Thursday topics, fabrication
76
CARDINAL
CONTEMPORARY LITERARY CRITICISM, Vol 189
self as stable and unchanging, but rather point to the
constructed nature of selfhood according to such elements as race, ethnicity, history, public perceptions,
and, of course, gender.
and falsification are once again at issue. Charles
digresses into a discussion of the theater, and soon realizes a similarity: "L'Histoire comme le theatre est une
facon mensongere de raconter les choses, de les corrompre en leur dormant une forme s6duisante et impure"
(84). Lula agrees: "L'Histoire est du theatre . . .
puisque l'Histoire fait 'comme si' les femmes
n'existaient pas" (84), (recalling the title of her previous text, Comme si de rien n'itait, where the absence
of women from History was precisely a major thematic).
Charles concludes that "tout art, toute facon de raconter
la vie est falsification" (85). Not only does this statement remind us of the performances staged by Charles
and Lula, but Charles' expose" draws our attention to
the "art" we are in the midst of reading. Jeudis, this
"facon de raconter la vie" . . . de Cardinal, is, like all
of her autobiographical attempts, a fabrication, another
version of her life story.
Cardinal's numerous autobiographical creations tell
"her story" as it is intimately linked to "herstory."
Through her various fabrications, she also participates
in women writers* efforts to articulate female subjectivity. In her endeavor to write female experiences,
Cardinal has long been an advocate of the need for
women to manipulate male language rather than to create a separate ecriture feminine. She encourages women
to shock, to speak frankly, but to use this language to
speak their own experiences. Through the use of a
"transformed, traditional language (which gives) visibility to women's experiences," (Hall, "L'Ecriture
feminine" 237) women will be able to demand freedom
and change. Trinh Minh-ha explains that though
Cardinal is opposed to an ecriture feminine or masculine, she affirms the presence of an autre discours.
Cardinal seeks, "a travers l'emploi inchange" du materiel, denoncer les manques du langage existant et son
echec a traduire les Veritas de femme. II faut pour cela,
dit (Cardinal), 'nous mettre au ras de notre corps . . .
exprimer l'inexprime' (52). Cardinal's desire to give
language to the hitherto silenced others and to break
down linguistic barriers, constitutes a contemporary
female strategy to express what is "forbidden" in female
discourse. It is also an effort to subvert women's
traditionally submissive role. In order to express female
experiences, Minh-ha concludes that many women
refuse "cette perte de substance des mots, cette division
entre le Sensible et 1'Intelligible" (53). The fullness of
language that Cardinal seeks, along with many contemporary women writers and critics, is necessary if women
are to encapsulate their experiences, write the body, and
have the persuasive power their words must carry.
The presence of typical female protagonists in Cardinal's corpus—women who revel in artisanal activity
and handicrafts (the embroiderer in Le Passi empiiU,
for example), women who are attached to nature and
cultivation of the soil (Lula in Jeudis)—is germane to
the activity of fabrication. The craft of writing is linked
to other organic, creative expressions. Furthermore,
Cardinal dismisses Western hierarchies that dictate:
"Scrire, c'est mieux que faire la cuisine" (author's
interview). Rather, the chemistry of cooking, like the
wonder of weaving, is an art. Durham explains that the
natural, social and aesthetic dimensions of culture are
intertwined in Cardinal's texts (46). As such:
Cardinal restores the female text to its original definition as an artisanal activity: text, 'woven thing,' from
the Latin texere, to weave, fabricate. Moreover, this
connection to fabricate, 'to construct by putting
together finished parts,' . . . reminds us that
'fabrications' or 'fictions' (fictio, a making, fashioning)
did not begin as falsehoods but, like Cardinal's fusion
of autobiography and novel, as carefully crafted
construction.
We in fact observe early on in Jeudis that Charles and
Lula speak differently. During their debate on
L'Histoire, we have an example of two subjective
(hi)stories, one from the male and one from the female
point of view. Cardinal thus illustrates stereotypical
distinctions between male and female discourses. One
critic explains: "Charles construit des discours autour
(des) sujets. Lula, elle, renvoie le plus souvent possible
au concret, aux souvenirs, a leur experience commune
et a leur fille Charlotte . . . L'esprit d'abstraction,
r6put6 philosophique et masculin, s'oppose ainsi celui
qui celui qui sans arret 'retourne a du v£cu, de
Pidentifiable'" (A. A., 66). Charles and Lula fabricate,
for example, possible legends explaining the history of
truffles, a vegetable known to be "sauvage (et) impressible" (87), characteristics which recall classical definitions of women. Charles begins with the typical
patriarchal formula: "II 6tait une fois" and tells the
story of a "un homme bourru qui avait douze femmes
(46-47)1
Yet what does such fabrication mask? Lula's remarks
on subjective History are telling. For Lula, the writing
of History is not merely a linguistic game. She states:
"Si l'Histoire est une falsification, elle altere done une
apparence, quelque chose qui existe" (82). Hence History, including personal histories, represents a certain
reality for Lula. Similarly, there exists a reality behind
Cardinal's various versions of her own (hi)story. Her
semi-fictive/semi-autobiographical representations do
not veil inner absence. Rather, they point to a sujet en
proces (Kristeva), a self which exists, but which can
constantly be redefined.* Feminist critics adhere to the
necessity of affirming a female self—a self which has
in fact eluded them through centuries of male constructions of female identity. They do not, however, posit the
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noires" (88). Whereas Charles embarks on a story of
polygamy, Lula picks up his tale and retells it in her
own fashion. She spins the story of a lumberjack and
his beautiful sow who, through a series of substitutions
of younger sows for the original, seems never to die—
I'eternelle truie similar to I'iternel feminin. The sow
digs holes where delicious truffles grow. The lumberjack
is the envy of the town when he markets his truffles
known as dames noires. Both Charles and Lula move
from specific terminology: les douze dames noires, to
different significations. Each invent different stories of
the dames noires/truffes noires through their own
imaginative and narrative preferences. The difference of
their stories is based on gender." Charles, becoming
uncomfortable, protests, "On est parti des memes faits.
Mais de quoi parlons-nous? Toi de l'eternel feminin et
moi de la polygamic historique. Finalement c'est en
jouant au jeu du vrai et du faux qu'on se definit, qu'on
se raconte, qu'on s'affirme (92, emphasis mine).
Fabrication then, of stories and History, refers back to
the speaker, back to the self; it is this fictional process
which leads to self-learning. Likewise, the fabulation of
self-portraits—the jeu in Jeudis where "I speak" (je
dis), where Cardinal speaks in part through Lula and
where Lula pretends to speak herself—is ultimately a
therapeutic process.
literary pursuits and subsequent occasions for the
encounters with her. Her texts respond to our many
needs, and our many selves.
In conclusion, Cardinal also affirms her desire to look
to the future in Jeudis. The final passages of the text
emphasize the thematic of discovery and union. Lula
returns to Provence—a return home after a voyage to
Egypt, a voyage into the past—and to a letter from
Charles. As Lula wanders throughout her house,
organizes her belongings and readies herself for a bath,
she realizes that she has been clinging to Charles* letter
the entire time. The last line of the text reads: "Elle
l'appellera plus tard, demain probablement" (251). This
open-ended conclusion creates the space for future
encounters—conversations which would undoubtedly
provide mental nourishment to take Charles, Lula,
Marie Cardinal and her readers well into the weekend.
Notes
r
Toward the end of Jeudis, Lula receives a letter from
Charles proposing scores of possible topics for their
future encounters. The potential for their communion is
boundless. Through mutual desire, play and sharing
they will come together, but never completely merge.
We read: "On ne sait jamais qui sont les autres. On peut
tout juste superposer des images" (61), a phrase which
resonates Cardinal's continual superiraposition of her
own concerns onto her characters. Cardinal hints that
no one—not even she—can ever entirely understand
herself or himself, for one will constantly continue to
discover multiple sides of one's own nature and of others." We recall the narrator of Le Pass$ empiete who
questions: "Qu'est-ce que c'est. ce que j'appelle 'mon
histoire'? C'est le mouvant, le multiple a l'interieur de
moi. C'est ce qui est a la fois cache et present dans mes
gestes, mes paroles, ma tete. Ce sont mes naissances
successives dans mon unique vie" (27). Importantly,
however, the discovery of the multiplicity of selfhood
does not lead to post-modern alienation and solitude.
Rather, self-exploration, communication and writing affirm a joy of living, of process, of encountering the self
anew, of sharing oneself with others. Through writing,
Cardinal finds a structure through which she can take
stock of herself, debate internally and philosophize.
Through a similar desire for structure, Charles and Lula
debate, play, and philosophize . . . on Thursdays. We,
the readers, are enchanted by the creative discourse of
the Other, the author. We anticipate Cardinal's future
1. See Hall's discussion of Cardinal's decision to
become a Canadian citizen. She cites an interview
with the author conducted by Heiene Pedneault where
Cardinal comments on the similarities between the
pieds-noirs and Quebeckers: "J'ai toujours senti dans
leur discours quelque chose de tres proche de moi,
c'est un discours de colonises, pas souvent politique
mais passionel, affectif' (Hall on Pedneault 8).
2. All quotations shall be taken from the edition listed
in the Works Cited, and indicated by page number.
3. See, for example. Cardinal's discussion of her
relationship with her husband in Autrement dit.
4. Excerpts of this interview, "Un Entretien avec Marie
Cardinal," have been published in Women in French
Studies 4 (Fall, 1996): 119-131.
5. Sec Cardinal's remarks in an interview published in
L'Est Ripublicain: "Les vertus Cardinal" (15
September, 1993). She states: "A 90% lors de mes
debuts, ce sont les femmes qui me lisaient." She
notes that her public is evolving, however, and that
young men between 20 and 25 years old, in particular,
are beginning to read her works.
6. Indeed, Cardinal has repeatedly stated in interviews
that when she began this project she intended to write
an essay. As she was not pleased with the results, she
opted to embed philosophical ideas into a fictional
format. See, for example, Chauvin, 'Toujours les
mots pour le dire . . ."
7. We as language teachers encourage our students to
role-play in order to liberate themselves from
linguistic restraints. When they become "different
people," they express themselves more freely, are
often less afraid, and allow fantasy to rule their
discourse. We witness similar reactions in the
characters of Charles and Lula. As they "pretend" for
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CONTEMPORARY LITERARY CRITICISM, Vol 189
-. Le Passe empiiti. Paris: Grasset, 1983.
one another, their communication is enhanced. At the
same time, they learn of their own strengths and
weaknesses, needs and desires.
-. Les Grands Disordres. Paris: Grasset, 1987.
-. Comme si de rien n'itait. Paris: Grasset, 1990.
8. As Durham has argued, Cardinal's writing does not
consist of mere social documentation or direct
exposition of personal events—criticisms, for that
matter, attributed to many women writers who prefer
the autobiographical mode. Rather, the fabric woven
by the blend of autobiography and fiction in Cardinal's texts constitutes a serious literary endeavor.
-. Les Jeudis de Charles et de Lula. Paris: Grasset, 1993.
. Personal interview, 30 April, 1994. Excerpts of
this interview, "Un Entretien avec Marie Cardinal,"
including updated material, have been published in
Women in French Studies 4 (Fall, 1996): 119-31.
9. Cardinal illustrates fluctuating subject positions in
Jeudis through her two characters: Charles is for
Lula "son amant, son enfant, son ami, son frere,
quelqu'un de qui elle est indissociable, son ennemi
aussi" (9). We find past versions/hear past voices of
Charles in his letters written to Lula over more that
forty years and embedded in the narrative. Lula is
"elle, la joumaliste, la retraitee, la femme, la mere de
Charlotte, la grand-mere de John" (132). Further,
Lula falls into several categories: "Elle se considere
comme une batarde, ses papiers sont francais, sa
terre est algenenne, elle se sent europeenne avec passion" (139). History has indeed assigned her many
roles to play.
Chauvin, Valerie. "Toujours les mots pour le dire . . ."
Femmes Info. Hiver 1994: 50.
Chodorow, Nancy. The Reproduction of Mothering:
Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. Berkeley
and Los Angeles: U of California Press, 1978.
Contrucci, Jean. "Marie Cardinal: Les Mots pour se le
, dire . . ." Le Provencal 17 Oct. 1993.
Donaday, Anne. "Repetition, maternite et transgression
dans trois ceuvres de Marie Cardinal." The French
Review 65:4 (Mar., 1992): 567-77.
10. Charles and Lula's different stories also illustrate
feminine revisionist History -and mythology, a
reconsideration of historical and mythical figures
from a feminist perspective, which Cardinal herself
has practiced in previous works. Consider, for
example, the feminine rewriting of the mythological
character of Clytemnestre in Le Passi empiiti.
Durham, Carolyn. The Contexture of Feminism: Marie
Cardinal and Multicultural Literacy. Urbana: U of Illinois Press, 1992.
Enthovan, Jean-Paul and Guy Scarpetta. "Ecrivain par
effraction: Marie Cardinal." La Rkgle du jeu (1993):
150-58.
11. When questioned about the failed attempt of Charles
and Lula to come to a clear understanding of their
lives and their love for one another in Jeudis,
Cardinal responds: "Heureusement: Si on arrivait au
bout des choses et des gens, il n'y aurait plus de raison de vivre et d'esperer. Toutes les assurances sont
vaines et sterilisantes. Cette constatation est le moteur de Taction. A part la mort, quoi de vraiment
sur?" (Contrucci).
Godin, Sophie. "Duo d'amants intellos." La Derniere
heure. [Belgium] 2 Nov. 1993.
Hall, Colette T. "VEcriture feminine and the Search for
the Mother in the Works of Violette Leduc and Marie
Cardinal." Women in French Literature. Ed. Michel
Guggenheim. Saratoga: Anma, 1988. 231-238.
. Marie Cardinal. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1994.
Works Cited
A. A. "Le Jeu des sentiments." Magazine
Nov. 1993: 66.
. "'She Is Me More than /': Writing and the
Search for Identity in the Works of Marie Cardinal."
Redefining Autobiography in Twentieth-Century Women's Fiction: An Essay Collection. Eds. Janice Morgan
and Colette T. Hall. New York: Garland, 1991. 57-71.
littiraire.
Cairns, Lucille. "Passion and Paranoia: Power Structures
and the Representation of Men in the Writings of Marie
Cardinal." French Studies 46:3 (Jul., 1992): 280-295.
Kristeva, Julia. "Le sujet en proces." Polylogue. Paris:
Seuil, 1977. 55-106.
Cardinal, Marie. La CIS sur la porte. Paris: Livre de
poche, 1972.
Lejeune, Philippe. Le Facte autobiographique. Paris:
Seuil, 1975.
. Les Mots pour le dire. Paris: Grasset, 1975.
Maury, Pierre. "La Dette de Toni Morrison." Le Soir
[Paris] 3 Nov. 1993.
- . Autrement dit Livre de poche, 1977.
. La Souriciire. Paris: Julliard, 1978.
1978.
Min-ha, Trinh T. "L'Inecriture: Feminisme et litterature." French Forum 8:1 (Jan., 1983): 45-63.
-. Vne Vie pour deux. Paris: Livre de poche,
79